Just like GE, at RSNA this week Siemens was very keen to highlight its efforts to make MRI quieter and thus a more pleasant experience for both patients and techs. Its Quiet Suite of applications covers complete neuro and musculoskeletal MRI examinations, for which it promises a minimum of a 70 percent reduction in sound pressure and no compromise in image quality.
Quiet Suite works by eliminating sharp gradient switching and has so far been implemented for TSE, SE and GRE sequences. Judging from the examples on Siemens’ website, the result is not quite as dramatic as what GE has achieved, but a major improvement nonetheless. It is fully implemented in software and will be available with the MAGNETOM Skyra 3T and MAGNETOM Area 1.5T MRI systems.
Another innovation highlighted was a set of two new MRI pulse sequences to improve liver imaging. The first is StarVIBE, a pulse sequence designed to enable free-breathing, contrast-enhanced liver imaging for patients unable to easily manage breath-holding. The second is TWIST-VIBE, a sequence designed to enable correct contrast imaging in dynamic liver MRI for all patients and lesions, allowing fast, robust liver imaging with full 4D coverage. The StarVIBE and TWIST-VIBE sequences will be available as the FREEZEit package on the MAGNETOM Skyra 3T and MAGNETOM Area 1.5T MRI systems.
Press release: At RSNA ’13, Siemens Offers Answers for Life…
Product pages: Siemens Quiet Suite…; Body MRI…; FreezeIt…